Endocrine Abstracts

Aims: The aim of our study was to evaluate the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure (HF) in diabetic and nondiabetic patients admitted to a central hospital in the North of Portugal between 1989 and 2004.

Materials and methods: Data from the Hospital Coding Centre were retrospectively analysed according to International Classification of Diseases (9th version) criteria. We have studied the distribution by age, sex, procedures, causes and duration of admissions. Statistical analysis was performed with Student’s t-test, χ² test or Fisher exact test. A two-tailed P value <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: A total of 698847 admissions were registered during the studied period. There were 14715 admissions with a diagnosis of CAD or HF without diabetes and 4733 admissions with a diagnosis of CAD or HF and diabetes. There were no significant differences in the age of diabetic patients [42.5% men (M) and 57.5% women (W)] and nondiabetic patients (48.4% M and 51.6% W) (66.1±10.5 vs 66.0±4.7 years, P=NS). There were no significant differences in the duration of hospitalization in diabetic patients and in nondiabetic patients (12.8±6.6 vs 12.9±12.3 days, P=NS). The incidence of angina pectoris was significantly higher in diabetic than in nondiabetic patients (2.2% vs 1.6%, P=0.007). There was an excess of myocardial infarction among the diabetic patients (5.6% vs 4.6%, P=0.03). The incidence of HF was significantly higher in diabetic than in nondiabetic patients (6.6% vs 5.0%, P<0.001).

Conclusions: The high incidence of CAD and HF in diabetic patients implies that the screening and the aggressive treatment of these pathologies are critical components of the heath care in our population.